528 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



purchase or own a flock of sheep, he receives one to keep or 

 board for another person. In this case he furnishes straw for 

 their litter in the stables on his own account ; and he furnishes 

 what hay, or grain, or pulse, they may consume at the expense 

 of their owner, at the current prices, or such prices as may be 

 agreed upon ; and he boards and lodges the shepherd with his 

 two dogs, who has the care of the flock, at about fifty-four dol 

 lars, or eleven pounds sterling, a year. He does this for the sake 

 of the manure and of disposing of his produce. In the Lothians, 

 Scotland, I found several instances in which the crops of turnips, 

 or ruta-baga, were disposed of in the field to persons bringing 

 sheep from the interior, to be consumed where they grew. 

 Where practicable, this arrangement is excellent. The Flemish 

 are of opinion that a hundred sheep, well fed, will give, in a well- 

 littered stable or bergerie, from fifty to sixty loads of manure, of 

 more value than eighty or ninety loads of any other stable or 

 barn manure. 



I have already spoken of the supply of manure obtained by 

 the Flemish from the numerous distilleries which existed in 

 Belgium, by the immense number of animals which were fed 

 and fatted on the refuse grains of those distilleries. But these 

 supplies are almost entirely cut off. 



Another species of manure, much valued on the Continent, and 

 especially among those careful husbandmen, the Flemish, is that 

 of pigeons and barn-door fowls. The superior efficacy of these 

 excrements over most other manures is acknowledged. The 

 excrements of birds are voided only in one form, and may there 

 fore be supposed to possess the greater strength. This manure 

 is saved in Flanders with the greatest care. Contracts are often 

 made with persons who keep pigeons for their manure. A hun 

 dred francs, or twenty dollars, is sometimes paid for the manure 

 of six hundred pigeons. The manure goes under the name of 

 columbine. The saving of this species of manure requires par 

 ticular care. It is advised to spread the floors of pigeon-houses 

 and poultry-houses with fine sand, that this manure may be 

 thoroughly intermixed with it r and a fermentation be prevented. 

 If no care is taken of it, it is wasted, or it becomes full of mag 

 gots and vermin, which infest the birds. Sometimes it is applied 

 mixed with water, but oftener in the form of powder. The 

 dung of pigeons is considered more powerful than that of barn- 



